The genocide committed against the Circassian nation by Czarist Russia in the 1800s was the biggest genocide of the nineteenth century. Yet it has been almost entirely forgotten by later history, while everyone knows the later Jewish Holocaust and many have heard about the Armenian genocide. "Rather than of separate, selectively researched genocides, we should speak of a general genocidal tendency that affected many – both Muslim and Christian – people on a wide scene between 1856 and 1956, continuing in post-Soviet Russia until today",

Their homeland rested in the northwestern Caucasus and on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea--along the southern border of the Russian empire. Before the Russian invasion, Circassia possessed two million people and an area of 55,663 square kilometers. They fought against Russian invasions from 1763-1864 and ultimately were defeated, with many Circassians being deported to Turkey. The decision to deport the Circassians came in 1860; the Russians invaded from the north, accompanied by mobile columns of riflemen and Cossack cavalry; four thousand Circassian families left for Turkey. In 1862, Russian soldiers burned Circassian villages and trampled the crops; those who fled died in the forests and mountains of hunger and exposure. The Russian General Babich took his soldiers south, burning Circassian villages along the way. In May 1864, the remaining Circassians bonded together in a frenzied battle and emerged triumphant over the Russian invaders; the victory, however, proved to be short-lived because the Russians returned with more artillery and soundly defeated the Circassian men and women; dissatisfied by only killing the Circassian adults, the triumphant Russian soldiers sought out the children and shot cannon shells at them.
Russia's war campaigns concentrated in the Circassian lands of the Northwest Caucasus and the Black Sea coast. To oppress the Circassians, Russia ended up in a solution that was to have sinister historical significance: All the historical territory of the Circassians, the Kuban plains and the Black Sea coast, were to be cleansed of the original population. The Circassians were given two choices: they could move to the interior parts of the Empire, or flee to Turkey. Most Circassians chose Turkey. Mass deportations were started in 1860, and the consequences were catastrophic. A humanitarian disaster followed, and the Circassians immediately organized armed resistance, and made Sochi their capital, appealing for Turkey and the Western states to recognize independent Circassia. Their appeals were ignored.
In 1862, Russia again started violent deportations, and by May 1864, the Circassian resistance had been crushed. More than 400'000 Circassians as well as 200'000 Georgian Abkhazians and Ajars were compelled to flee for Turkey. The deportation did not take place without major violence, but the Russian imperial troops committed horrible massacres, and besides, thousands of people starved to death. In 1865, Russia decided to use the same methods to cleanse Chechnya, from where 5'000 extended families were deported to Turkey (the amount was huge compared with the size of the population at the time – a family is a very large unit).
It was really the first intentional large-scale genocide of the modern times, as well as the model case of the consequent tradition of ethnic cleansing. It was also the largest single genocide of the 19th century. It preceded the wave of pogroms and deportations that Russia used against the Jews, and it also preceded the tragic consequences that the same Russian expansion wars against Turkish territories had on Armenians after the turn of the century. For some reason, the Circassian genocide has never been given proper attention or researched well. The Circassian genocide ended at about same time with the launching of the Jewish deportations in 1880s, when more than three million Circassians had been expelled from the territories occupied by Russia. The numbers of those who were killed are not known. Anyway, it meant 90 per cent of the whole Circassian population.

i take the russian's side on this one. during the 19th century, russians expanded their territory by subjugating and displacing more primitive non-western peoples. this is the same thing that europeans did in the americas.

i take the russian's side on this one. during the 19th century, russians expanded their territory by subjugating and displacing more primitive non-western peoples. this is the same thing that europeans did in the americas.

Well mr. those primative ppl u r talking about were civilized more than the russians and they were not primitive as u r saying then i think u r just writing for the sake of writting pliz do some resaearches about circassian's civilization before throwing accusations and god this is so redicilus that you give this reason to colonize the countries of ppl and depriving them of thier freedom.

Well mr moscow then i think u r ignorant to say such thing cause my friend when the russians started the war against us Circassians were christians and till now there is a lot of christains circassian u r the same as the former guy pliz do some research before trying to be smart here .

Good, I hope it happens again except to all turkic people who happen to get in our way.

God u r just like the two before writting withot knowing anything who said we are turkish or you guys just write for the sake of writting .
but any way the day will come and i hope you will be alive to witness it thought i doubt that

Well mr. those primative ppl u r talking about were civilized more than the russians and they were not primitive as u r saying then i think u r just writing for the sake of writting pliz do some resaearches about circassian's civilization before throwing accusations and god this is so redicilus that you give this reason to colonize the countries of ppl and depriving them of thier freedom.

no, that's a lie. circassians are primitive tribal people who have never contributed anything to world civilization in science, math, engineering, invention, art, literature, music or anything else. russians have made enormous contributions to all of these fields. just as little joke, i spent a few minutes researching "circassian civilization" on the internet and found absolutely nothing apart from the the fact that circassians have been living in the northwest caucuses for a long time and are a martial culture. no achievements of any kind are listed.

no, that's a lie. circassians are primitive tribal people who have never contributed anything to world civilization in science, math, engineering, invention, art, literature, music or anything else. russians have made enormous contributions to all of these fields. just as little joke, i spent a few minutes researching "circassian civilization" on the internet and found absolutely nothing apart from the the fact that circassians have been living in the northwest caucuses for a long time and are a martial culture. no achievements of any kind are listed.

Well Well Well finally someone is reading but sorry not enough
MR.to find that a NATION had civilization you have to read more and more the greeks now adays do not have that big civilization but once uppon a time they were ruling the world so do not say somthing without returning to the roots
wanan ask you a question CIrcassians what was the name of thier ancestrals
?????
id u try to search for that ??? i do not think so well as many wesern historians say: the ancestars of circassians were the Hitties, some others say Spartans were originally from the caucases area>there is lots and lots of these sayings that i think yo did not bother search for anyway
wanna ask you a question have you ever read the the NARTS myth
or have you ever heared of circassians music and dancing i do not think so too MR. circassians had moral values and a judjical structure way back in history his is all for now ,so pliz do not be as the rest read and write read and write do not be a donly with a sack of books on his back read the books thx .

It seems to me that @Namaat has the same problem as some albanian christians here. They themselves, are christians and anthropologically white Europeans, but they belong to a predominantly muslim nation which culture and religion are everything but european. In a way they are torn apart between their individual belonging to our civilisation and colective non european cultural belongings of their nations.

But unlike Albanians, in the case of Circassians it is even very doubtful their anthropoligocal belonging to white race because they belong to north caucasus non-indoeuropean branch of peoples. During their interactions with Russians and Georgians they adopted some christian and european cultural and religious influences but only partially.

It is true that majority of Circassians are sunni muslims (not fanatic ones), and only smaller part of them are christians. They are very old nation, but they adopted christianity only in 13th century when they felt under rule of Georgians. Before that they were predominantly pagans and partially muslims. In 16th century they were conquered by Crimean Tatars and become mostly muslims, what they stayed until our days.

It is also true that Russians displaced many of Circassians (mostly to Turkey) after their war, but it is because Circassians (Cherkess) were muslims with very close connections to Ottoman empire. And Russians, after all, followed this "displacement pattern" (both tzar and communist regime) no matter of religion of their enemies, so they displaced hundreds of thousands of muslim Circassians and Crimean Tatars, same as christian Estonians and Letonians, not to mention Poles and Germans after the WWII.

Since this is supposed to be forum for white Europeans, @Namaat, you can't expect very much sympathies for your nation which obviously do not belong in our racial and cultural circle although you yourself as a individual may.

Other things about your people I personally dislike is easiness in changing sides. I allready mentioned that you become christians under the georgian rule, and muslims under tatar rule. And in the WWII many Circassian war prisoners from Red Army joined German units but only after they were captured. But no matter on which side they fought Circassians (in Red Army or Wehrmacht) characterised themselves as a cruel and savage soldiers which inclined to torturing prisoners and civilians, raping women, burning and robbing houses. That is why Red Army often used them for a intimidation of civilians and ethnic cleansing. Here in Croatia same as in other ex-Yugoslavia states Red Army Circassians (Čerkezi) commited many horrible war crimes against, mostly, white, christan Croatian civilians. Here "Čerkezi" stayed as an example of cruel savages. You may not like this, but it is true.

Same things you could here from Serbs because during serbian uprisings in 19th century esspecially Circassians (again Ćerkezi) were particulary cruel part of turkish troops and their main assigments were so called "punishment expeditions" , which means terrorising and intimidating local population.

So, @Namaat, perhaps you chose wrong forum to seek for sympathies for your people. I don't think that you will make many friends here.